Stargate Thirdspace: Halo What If
by andrewjameswilliams
Summary: SG Thirdspace AU. What might have happened if Rivendell and her escort squadron had arrived in another universe to Babylon Five verse.
1. Chapter 1

_**Stargate Thirdspace: What If**_

Authors Note: This story is a spin off story from Stargate Thirdspace which asked what would have happened if Rivendell and her escorts had ended up in a different universe to Babylon Five after the first battle with the Sinhindrea.

* * *

_**Chapter One**_

Admiral Jacob Robyns sighed softly as he studied the report on the holographic screen floating in front of his eyes. It had been six days since the encounter with the unknown but extremely aggressive and xenophobic aliens in the dark matter galaxy they'd been escorting Rivendell to. Six days since the fleet had been forced to withdraw only to have their combined hyperspace window hit by weapons fire from the pursuing aliens, weapons fire which had somehow mutated there hyperspace window into something else. Six days since said mutated window spat them out in the Milky Way – but not there Milky Way as there was no subspace activity of any kind. No communications, no ships in hyperspace, no Stargate activity nothing.

For the last six days, scientists on his ships and on Rivendell had worked with Rivendell's A.I Arwen to try to figure out what exactly had happened to them. It hadn't taken very long to determine that the aliens unusual antiproton based plasma weapons fire had somehow worked with the exotic properties of dark matter to transform the hyperspace window into a trans-universal rift. Since then they had been working to try to figure out away of getting back to their own reality – while everyone else worked to repair the damage the alien weapons and the passage through the rift had done to their ships – but they hadn't gotten anywhere. According to the report the exhaustive analysis carried out confirmed that there was no way of recreating the rift that had brought them here, there was just far to many variables that even Arwen with all her processing power couldn't completely account for them.

Sighing again, he pressed one of the crystalline controls on his ready room desk console, dismissing the holographic screen and the depressing report. He had half expected what the findings would be, but that didn't make reading it any easier. _We're stuck here,_ he thought, _terrific, I suppose I had better have a word with Governor Shepherd, see if she has any idea of what we can do now._ He was just reaching for his desk comm. unit when the device came to life.

"Flag Bridge to Admiral Robyns," a familiar female voice said. Jacob tapped the glowing crystal making a holographic screen appear in front of him again, this time showing the face and torso of his flag captain Josephine Owens.

"Yes, captain?" he asked.

"Sorry to disturb you, sir but our long range sensors have picked up a ship at the edge of the system. It's coming in system slowly from interstellar space and is not responding to our hails."

"Can you tell what kind of ship it is?" Jacob asked raising an eyebrow, he wasn't surprised by the lack of response to attempted communications given the total lack of subspace comm. traffic they'd observed in this galaxy over the last few days. It was unlikely that the crew of the incoming ship even knew that they were being hailed.

"Negative," Owens answered. "Our sensors are having a hard time locking onto it at this range. We're not picking up much in the way of energy emissions either. It doesn't look like the ship is under power but rather is coasting along on inertia. It could well be derelict."

"Hmm," Jacob said thoughtfully, wondering what curveball fate or some random ascended being was throwing there way now. "Dispatch a fighter squadron and one of the cruisers to investigate. If it is a derelict have them board the ship, I want to know who they are and where they come from."

"Aye sir."

"Then contact Rivendell, tell Governor Shepherd that I need to speak with her on a matter of the utmost urgency."

"Aye sir."

"Keep me informed on the status of the incoming ship, if it makes any sudden moves I want to know about it immediately."

"Yes sir," Owens answered before Jacob signed off, making the holographic screen vanish with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble. As the screen disappeared he leaned back in his seat and thought about the incoming vessel teasing there sensors and felt his youthful wanderlust and curiosity stir. He couldn't help but wonder what the ship was and where it had come from, and how it had come to be travelling between star systems at sublight speeds. At that kind of speed, it would take decades or even centuries for the ship to get anywhere. _Maybe it some kind of ark ship,_ he thought, _after all it could be whatever species inhabit this version of the Milky Way might not have developed hyperspace technology. However, it could also easily be a derelict, abandoned long ago and left to roam the stars as a celestial Flying Dutchman._

A chime sounded throughout his ready room a moment before a holographic screen once more blinked into existence in front of him this time showing the face and torso of Rivendell's governor, Alison Shepherd. Jacob mentally sighed once again and straightened up for what was probably going to be a difficult conversation.

"Hello, admiral," the governor said in greeting, though the grim look in her eyes belied the cheer in the greeting. "I take it you've read the report from the scientists."

"I have," Jacob confirmed grimly. "The findings are far from ideal, though I can't say I'm overly surprised by them."

"I know what you mean," Alison admitted. "From the moment our sensors revealed that this is a different quantum universe to our own we knew that getting home was not going to be easy."

"Indeed, now it seems like it will never be possible. So the question is what do we do? As far as we can tell there is no subspace activity in this galaxy, so it's unlikely there is anything like a Tau'ri Federation here. Earth might not even exist in this reality for all we know. Even if it does it won't be our world, they won't be our people. We're alone."

"We have each other," Alison pointed out. "Between your ships and those of us here on Rivendell we have a total population of just over thirty five thousand individuals. If my memory is correct there was a plan drawn up for contingencies where groups of ships or entire fleets could become separated from the rest of our race."

"You're talking about the Kasaki Plan."

"You know of it?"

"Yes," Jacob confirmed. "Though if I recall my academy classes where they taught us about it correctly many of the plans protocols are outdated; after all the plan was formulated at a time when we lacked the technology to make devices such as zero point modules, nano-forges and food synthesisers or build things like cityships."

Alison nodded. "Indeed. We'll have to carefully review all the plans protocols and recommendations to see which ones we can apply to us and to our unique circumstances," she said. "But one thing is certain we'll have to find a suitable planet soon as this city cannot stay in space for much longer."

Jacob nodded. He was fully aware of the fact that cityships couldn't stay in space indefinitely they simply weren't designed for long-term space travel. Instead cityships were designed to launch from a planet, travel to their destination and land again. Spending periods longer than a few weeks in space, having to keep shields up to keep atmosphere in the city and stardrive powered up to hold station would soon start draining Rivendell's resources; particularly the trio of zero point modules that provided the city with the bulk of its power.

"Maybe we should start sending out probes to scan some star systems that are outside the fleet's sensor range," he suggested. "Start the ball rolling on finding a suitable place to land the city while we review the Kasaki Plan."

Alison nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a plan," she agreed. "I'll have Arwen launch a series of survey probes to sweep systems outside of our immediate sensor range; in the meantime though we have another issue to discuss."

"Oh?"

"Yes the unknown ship our sensors have detected coming in from interstellar space at relatively low sublight speeds. I am aware that you've dispatched a cruiser and some fighters to investigate it."

"That's correct. What about it?" Jacob asked.

Alison gave a small smile. "As you are aware admiral the sensors here on Rivendell are considerably more powerful than what you have on the _Achilles,_" she said. "We've been able to gather some additional information on the incoming ship."

"What kind of information have you been able to gather?"

"I'm forwarding it to you now," Alison replied. "But it's not a huge amount. We've determined that the ship is two and a half kilometres long and appears to be constructed of obsolete materials, specifically a titanium-based metallic alloy."

"Titanium," Jacob repeated more than a little incredulous. Titanium or titanium-based alloys hadn't been used in starship construction in centuries, as while it was a strong metal trinium was far stronger. Trinium or trinium-based alloys also had the advantage of being lighter while being far more resilient to both energy fire and the subspace radiation encountered when travelling in hyperspace.

"I know it's strange. I would have thought that any civilisation capable of designing and constructing a ship the size of the incoming vessel would have discovered far more advanced and durable metals and alloys than titanium."

"Indeed. That ship is one giant question mark after another," Jacob answered. "Hopefully we will get some answers about it shortly."

"We can but hope," Alison replied. "While we wait for answers though admiral I suggest we get on with addressing our other concerns. We should both review the Kasaki Plan, and meet over here in a couple of hour's time, work out exactly what we are going to do next."

"Agreed, I'll keep you apprised of any developments regarding the unknown vessel."

"I would appreciate that, thank you."

"You're welcome. Now though if you'll excuse me governor I have some reading to do."

"Of course, good luck."

"To both of us," Jacob answered knowing the Kasaki Plan was not going to be exactly easy reading. Government plans and bills never were, instead they were always complex, bureaucratic nightmares that could really try your patience. Governor Shepherd smiled back at him before breaking the connection between them from her end.

Jacob sighed as the holographic comm. screen once again evaporated into thin air. For a moment he sat there in his seat then he accessed his desk terminal and made a new holographic screen appear. After accessing the _Achilles_ library computer he pulled up the details of the centuries old Kasaki Plan and began the time consuming, frustrating job of reading through it. He just hoped the government analysts who'd devised the plan all those centuries ago had known what they were talking about when they'd come up with the plan.

Because he had no idea what they would do if they'd been wrong.

* * *

**TFS Concordia**

**A Few Minutes Later**

Captain Paul Mitchell frowned thoughtfully as he studied the increasingly detailed findings of their scanners as they closed upon the unknown vessel. Findings that combined with sensor data courtesy of Rivendell's far more powerful scanners only increased the mystery surrounding the incoming ship.

_Concordia's_ sensors had determined that the unknown was definitely a warship, the weapons turrets and missile/torpedo pods visible on her hull along with the large cannon in the bow made that perfectly obvious. However, what was confusing was the fact that the vessel didn't appear to mount any form of energy shielding system. An occurrence that was almost unprecedented for a spacefaring vessel, as most species that they knew of who were capable of space travel used energy shielding in some form even if only on a low level to protect the ship from radiation spikes, micro-asteroids and other space debris while in normal space.

Instead of shielding the derelict, if it really was derelict, warship seemed to be completely reliant on its thick titanium-based alloy hull for protection. _Concordia's_ sensors had revealed that that had obviously not been enough as the ships hull had been breached in over a dozen places. Some of the hull damage was clearly caused by weapons fire the holes having the characteristic smooth, melted edges of damage inflicted by directed energy weapons. However, other holes had more ragged and torn edges. One particularly large hole on the ships port side had the jagged, twisted and crumpled look of collision damage while the other holes were smaller and had the punched in look of meteoroid impacts.

Paul shook his head softly. The derelict had obviously been travelling through space for quite sometime – the fleet's long-range sensors had long ago confirmed that there were no habitable planets within twenty light years of here in all directions. It was a testament to the engineering skills of whoever had built her that the ship was still holding together – not that it would for much longer as the navigational computer had extrapolated the ships trajectory and determined that on her current course she would drive straight into the deepest part of the larger of this systems two asteroid fields. An event that would certainly lead to her destruction.

"Sir," Lieutenant Alexander McKay reported from sensors. "Our latest in depth scan of the derelict has been completed. We're starting to pick up weak life form readings on board."

"What kind of life forms," Paul asked curiously and also hopefully. If there were life forms on board the ship then he would have all the justification he needed to either board the ship or tractor her onto a safer trajectory. _Assuming of course that the derelict would be able to withstand the sudden change in inertial and gravitational stresses caused by locking on a tractor beam,_ he thought.

"Human sir," McKay reported sounding disbelieving. "There very faint, almost too faint for our sensors to register them, there also not moving at all. My guess is there in some form of stasis."

"Stranger and stranger," Paul mused. "What's the atmosphere like over there?"

"Stale and very cold, it's only a degree or two above freezing over there, sir. The ships power levels are incredibly low, all there reactors appear to be powered down, all but one emergency generator as well. From these readings I would guess that within a month at most the ship will loose what little power it has left, when that happens…"

"…those people in stasis would die," Paul finished before straightening up in his seat. His choice was clear regulations – and more importantly his own conscience – would not let him abandon the people on the derelict to their fate.

"Alright this is what we're going to do. Commander Parker I want you to prepare a boarding party," he said after a moment. "We'll transport them aboard the derelict ship, once there they're to determine if there is away for us to transport the stasis apparatus to this ship for transport back to Rivendell and revival."

"Aye sir," Commander Jason Parker answered turning to his console and starting to carry out his task even before he finished speaking.

"Communications send a transmission to both Rivendell and the _Achilles_. Advise Admiral Robyns and Governor Shepherd what we're doing."

"Aye sir," communications acknowledged.

Paul relaxed back in his chair as around him his crew burst into action, carrying out his commands as they prepared to render assistance to the crew of the derelict ship. He focused his attention at the ship displayed on the high-resolution screens at the front of the bridge that provided a window out on space. The ship was ugly, all blocky and angular with nothing like the sleek grace that modern Tau'ri ships had. The fact that it had a Human crew and had presumably been built by Human hands wasn't particularly surprising when he thought about it. Only Humans could build ships that ugly and get away with doing it. In fact, now that he thought about it the design was like something they themselves would have built before the development of inertia-less sublight engines forced a radical rethink when it came to starship design.

The question now was how the Humans on that ship had gotten into their current predicament. How had they come to be out here, hundreds of light years from Earth and twenty light years from any habitable planetary system? As far as their sensors could determine the derelict had no faster than light capabilities, at least not of any known design, so how did they get out here? Unless the derelict was somekind of sleeper ship – something that was very unlikely for a warship – something else was going on here. _I hope that we'll get some answers soon,_ he thought.

At that moment the communications console emitted a soft series of bleeps and chirps as a signal was received. "Captain we've just received a message from the _Achilles_," the officer operating the console reported. "Admiral Robyns aggress with you that we should board the derelict and rescue the crew. However he advises that extreme caution be taken doing so as we have no idea how or why this ship is out here."

"Signal our acknowledgement, lieutenant," Paul ordered.

"Aye sir."

"Commander is the away team ready for transport to the derelict?"

"Yes sir they are," Commander Parker answered. "Given the condition of the derelict I've ordered them to wear full armour and to be cautious onboard."

"A sensible precaution commander," Paul agreed. "Advise the team they are clear to transport over to the derelict."

"Yes sir."

* * *

**Derelict Ship**

**A Few Moments Later**

The first thing that Lieutenant Nathan Blackwell saw when the _Concordia's_ transport beam released him was near total darkness. The first thing he felt was an incredible lightness that made his feet start to leave the metal deck as he slowly drifted upwards in zero gravity. But it was only for a moment before his armours computer automatically adapted to the situation, magnetic souls on his boots engaged bringing his feet firmly back into contact with the titanium-alloy of the deck.

The darkness disappeared as the sensors built into the armour probed the space around him and brought up an electronic image of where he was on his helmets built in heads up display. Nathan noticed that he and the other five marines of the boarding party were in what had to be some sort of hanger bay. Lined up in rows on either side of a wide central walkway were eight large bulky craft with nose and wing mounted weapons turrets as well as what looked to be somekind of missile pods under the wings. From the size and design Nathan guessed they were probably the derelicts equivalent of Night Hawk landing craft or the recently developed Mirage-class bombers as they were far to big to be fighters. At the end of the deck to there right a large set of doors sat closed, from the size Nathan guessed that they were the hanger bay doors.

"Lieutenant," Sergeant Rostov said over the closed subspace radio circuit linking the members of the boarding party together in secure contact. "I've located the closest active stasis signatures."

"Where are they, sergeant," Nathan asked.

"Approximately two hundred and fifty metres aft of our current location and up one deck, if my sensors are correct there should be a ladder or stairwell sixty five metres from here on the right hand side," Rostov answered. "I'm relaying the coordinates to all team members now."

Nathan nodded as a small window opened on his helmet HUD showing a blinking green dot some distance down the blue outline of a corridor. "Squad move out," he ordered before starting walking towards the far left end of the hanger bay.

The rest of his team followed closely behind him, the sound of their boots hitting the deck echoing through the silent, cavernous interior of the hanger bay. As he walked, Nathan couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable by the shapes of the landing craft revealed by his armour sensors. They looked powerful and dangerous, it would be easy to think them alive, predators that were waiting to pounce on unsuspecting prey. _They would probably look a lot less menacing if the bay lights were on,_ he thought, _but there's no power to much of this ship._ As he walked, he did have to wonder how the people on this ship had come to be in their present situation, in stasis on a ship whose current course would soon end with its destruction amongst the remains of a failed planet.

_Hopefully we'll get some answers soon,_ he thought as he reached the doors to the rest of the ship. As he'd expected the thick metal, doors were closed and the control panel beside them was dark and lifeless. Not put off in the slightest Nathan calmly mentally instructed his suits computer to scan the doors and the locking mechanism knowing that unless the Humans who'd built this ship were radically different to his race they would have included a manual override system of some sort for emergencies.

A heartbeat later, the suit spat back a response. There was no direct manual override system. _Oh terrific,_ Nathan thought even as he examined the scan results in more detail. He noticed that the doors were hydraulically controlled, but any thoughts of bypassing the hydraulic system went out the window when the scan revealed that the lines to the motor were on the opposite side of the door to the squad's current position. _Guess there is only one thing for it,_ he thought.

"Break it down," he ordered his people.

Immediately Corporals Sterns and Hayes moved forward and accessed the doors with their suit sensors before proceeding to attach a series of small devices to the titanium alloy of the door. Behind the silvered faceplate of his helmet, Nathan smiled as he recognised the devices as shaped C-60 – a modern descendant of C-4 plastic explosives – charges. Being designed to penetrate far more advanced and durable alloys the charges would make very short work of the inch thick titanium doors.

"We're ready sir," Sterns reported over the comm. after a moment.

"Good pull back," Nathan ordered moving back so they would be out of any conceivable blast radius. While the charges were shaped there was always a chance of some of the blast coming back there way, it was a slim one but a chance nevertheless. The rest of his team followed him and in moments, they were secreted behind one of the docked ships.

"Send the detonation signal," he ordered.

"Yes sir," Sterns replied before obeying tradition. "Fire in the hole," he said before mentally giving a command to his suits computer, which immediately sent the detonation signal to the charges.

The explosion split the air, showing everything in the docking bay in sharp relief before the light of the blast faded. Through his feet Nathan felt the ship shudder slightly as the shockwaves shot through the support structure a moment before a pressure wave washed over where they were hiding carrying with it a plume of smoke and a few glowing pieces of pulverised metal. After a moment the fallout subsided, allowing the squad to come out of where they had taken cover.

Stepping clear of the landing craft Nathan looked over at where the heavy door into the rest of the ship. The door was completely gone, torn asunder by the explosives. Instead of an imposing barrier, now an opening led into a wide, high corridor, a corridor that was littered with the torn fragments of the bulkhead door.

"Move out," Nathan ordered over the squad command frequency before stepping through the wreckage of the door and being careful to watch his steps. Though there was little to no chance of him being hurt should he trip on the debris, he likely wouldn't even feel the fall as his armours shields and panelling would easily protect him and diffuse the force of impact. Still he walked carefully as he didn't want to look like a fool, which is how he'd look if he happened to trip of something as mundane as a chunk of pulverised titanium.

The rest of the boarding party followed closely behind him, taking equal care to watch their footing until they were clear of the debris field. As soon as they were all clear, Nathan picked up the pace a bit, following the corridor until they came upon the access hatch that Sergeant Rostov's sensors had detected earlier. Arriving at the hatch Nathan wasn't particularly surprised to find it closed though surprisingly the control panel beside the door still glowed with a weak light, indicating that it was still drawing some of this ships slowly failing auxiliary power supply.

Calmly he studied the panel and blinked in surprise when he saw that the characters were clearly English. After a second he mentally berated himself for being surprised, this ship was Human built and they were in another universe to their own. There was no neutronium clad law after all that said other Human societies had to use Ancient as a written language – even though it was better at conveying various advanced mathematical and higher dimensional concepts than English – indeed many of the less advanced Human societies in their own universe still used their own languages. Studying the panel more closely he eventually pressed one of the controls and a green light came on, a second before with the sound of hydraulics the door slid open.

"Come on," he said stepping into the stairwell, and was surprised to see that there was still some light in here. Small lights at regular intervals were glowing with a faint blue light that barely banished the darkness that seemed to fill much of this ship. _Probably being powered by built in emergency capacitors, just like some light crystals on our ships have auxiliary capacitors to power them in the event of main power failure,_ he thought as he started leading the way up the steps his footsteps clanging on the metal. The sound echoed weirdly off the walls of the stairwell, breaking the graveyard silence that filled the derelict ship.

"Damn that's spooky," Hayes commented.

"Just a little," Nathan agreed as they continued moving, heading up to the next level of the supposedly derelict warship built by the Humans of this universe.

* * *

**Bridge**

**TFS Concordia**

**A Few Moments Later**

The sudden crystalline-sounding bleeping from the sensor station drew Captain Mitchell out of his contemplation of the derelict ship on his front screen. Turning his head to look at Lieutenant McKay he saw the younger man working to find out what it was that had suddenly teased the _Concordia's_ sensitive scanners.

"Sir," McKay reported after a moment, not looking up. "Short range sensors are detected somekind of spatial distortion forming thirty-five thousand kilometres away on a bearing of one six four mark zero eight nine."

"What kind of spatial distortion?" Paul asked.

"I'm not sure it reads somewhat like a hyperspace window forming but there are a number of differences."

"Show me," Paul ordered with a puzzled from on his face as he turned his attention back to high-resolution display screens at the front of the bridge.

"Yes sir," McKay answered before giving a mental command to his console.

Immediately the screens changed from showing a view of the supposedly derelict native Human warship to a view of a location that was further out from there location, though still within drone weapons range. The viewed space glowed with a strange greenish light and seemed to be almost bubbling, like it was a liquid that was boiling, before parting revealing a glowing aperture half a second before two alien vessels slipped gracefully into normal space. The distortion vanished behind them and for a few moments, Paul studied the two new ships with interest.

They were very different in design to the blocky, angular warship that his boarding party was currently investigating. Instead both were sleek, elegant designs composed of three vaguely oval sections and with two strange fins at forty-five degree angles to the centre line along their aft section. Both ships were constructed from a purple-blue metal that gave off a strange almost opalescent sheen and their rear engines glowed with a soft purple light. They were big ships to, each half again as long as the _Concordia_, though more slender. In away the ships seemed oddly fragile yet at the same time there was something about them, something that indicated the vessels were dangerous predators.

Paul was brought out of his contemplation of the alien vessels by a series of trilling bleeps from the sensor console. "What is it," he asked turning his head to look at Lieutenant McKay.

"Alien ships are scanning both us and the derelict sir," the younger officer reported. "There scans are penetrating our passive ECM systems – there getting clear readings of us."

"Return the favour scan them," Paul ordered a little startled that the aliens ships sensors were penetrating their ECM systems – albeit systems that were only currently operating in passive mode as opposed to actively working to disrupt sensor beams and communications signals. Few races that he knew of had the ability to scan their ships so thoroughly through even passive ECM most developing worlds back home didn't have the ability to do that.

"Aye sir, sir the alien ships have ceased scanning," McKay replied. "Sensors are detecting power surges on both vessels, they're raising shields and appear to be powering up weapons systems."

"Raise shields," Paul ordered immediately. "Move us into position to screen the derelict ship. Lieutenant can you determine what weapons systems the alien ships use?"

"Each ship appears to be armed with one large particle beam cannon and numerous pulse cannon turrets, exact nature of pulse weapon unknown. There is also some kind of magneto-plasma strips running along the lateral lines, exact nature unknown but from the increasing temperature and beta-particle readings mine and the computers best guess is there plasma weapons of somekind."

"What about the alien shields lieutenant," Commander Parker asked. "Can the scanners reveal anything about them?"

"Scans confirm that the alien shields are inferior to our own," McKay answered. "They appear to be at least four generations behind our own shield technology they won't withstand our weapons for very long." The sensors bleeped an urgent warning. "Alien ships locking on… there firing."

No sooner than the words left the lieutenant's mouth than a soft series of shudders accompanied by a rumble of distant thunder were felt/heard throughout the _Concordia_ as volleys of purple-blue energy bolts from both alien ships struck the cruisers shields. To the pilots of the Hornet-class fighters holding a perimeter around both the _Concordia_ and the derelict ship the alien weapons made a pretty lightshow as the pulses broke up on contact with the shields and vanished in soft silvery-white shimmers as the energy was effortlessly either absorbed or refracted back out into space.

"Damage," Paul asked as soon as the _Concordia_ finished shivering from the minor shockwaves from the ineffectual attack.

"No damage sir," Lieutenant Daniels reported from the engineering/damage control station. "Shields are holding."

"Alien weapons appear to be somekind of pulsed lasers," Lieutenant McKay added as another volley of blasts impacted their shields and once again sleeted ineffectively off. "Firepower is about the same as the light capital plasma cannons the Jaffa use on their fighters or as point defence weapons on their motherships. They're no threat to our shields."

"Communications try and hail those ships," Paul ordered even as a third volley of pulse laser blasts thudded into their shields. _Have to give these guys credit for persistence if nothing else,_ he thought a moment before two more powerful impacts against the shields produced a more powerful and noticeable shudder in the deck beneath his feet. "What was that?"

"Some sort of focused plasma weapons just impacted our shields, sir," McKay reported. "They're very similar to the plasma balls fired at us by the aliens in the dark matter galaxy, however its not antiproton based and plasma particle density is somewhat lower."

"It still packs a punch though," Daniels added. "Shields are down to ninety percent and holding."

"No response on any communications channels sir," communications reported. "I've tried every frequency I can think of – I've even tried old fashioned radio signals – but there is no reply."

"Aggressive silent types then," Parker commented as yet more pulse laser blasts smashed into their shields. "Captain this has gone on for long enough. We should return fire."

"Agreed," Paul, replied. "We've tried to talk to these people, whoever or whatever they are and there not interested in talking just shooting. It is time to show them our teeth and claws in return. Tactical target the closest alien vessel, ion cannons only."

"Acquiring target, weapons ready," Lieutenant Commander John Beach reported from tactical.

"Fire."

* * *

For the first time since the battle that had seen Rivendell and her escorts transported across universes gun turrets on the outer hull of the _Concordia_ swivelled round and locked onto the closest alien warship. For a moment, nothing happened then the muzzles of the powerful cannons – both the single barrel heavy ion cannons and the dual barrel mediums – glowed with whitish-blue light as ionic energy gathered in the pre-fire chambers of the advanced particle weapons. A millisecond before discharging in a massed salvo of electric blue-white energy blasts.

The barrage of ion bolts sparkled and crackled like blasts of malignant lightning as they streaked through space towards the closest of the two alien starships. Mere moments later they slammed into the shield surrounding the ship with a searing force. The alien shield flared with a brilliant scintillating silver sheen that spread over the entire ship as it fought to disperse or deflect the energy of the attack back out into space. A second massed volley of ion bolts erupted from the _Concordia_ and smashed into the still flickering shields with enormous force.

It was too much.

Already struggling to repel the energy imparted by the first massed salvo of ion bolts the alien shields flared nova bright, then winked out of existence allowing the remaining energy of the ion bolts to smash into the armoured hull of the warship. Armour glowed white hot in several locations as ionic energy attacked the atomic structure of the metal, tearing molecules apart from the atomic level up. The alien warship rocked with the impact and yawed to starboard from the inertia imparted by the sudden eruption of ejector from disintegrating armour plates.

Another pair of ion bolts – this time from dorsal heavy ion cannon turret one only – smashed into the wounded vessel. Each blast punched through what was left of the warships armour like it was paper – one bolt shooting right the way through the ship coming in underneath and cutting right through to shoot out the dorsal surface with an eruption of debris and burning atmospheric gasses. The second bolt came in on a slightly different trajectory and sliced deep into the ship, eviscerating section after section on four decks before smashing into the starboard plasma storage tank the ionic energy discharge exploding inside the volatile mass of superheated material with hundreds of megatons of destructive force. No longer contained and charged to a far higher level than normal by the ion blast, the plasma burst forth instantly melting or vaporising everything that it met before it reached the ships fusion fuel tanks. Instantly the superheated mass flash heated the deuterium to the point of detonation.

The mortally wounded alien warship split wide open along every single seam, before disintegrating in a massive explosion that sent debris and a wave of superheated plasma and radiation flying in all directions. The blast wave smashed into the remaining alien warship – setting its shields aglow as they fought to repel the maelstrom suddenly unleashed upon them. The blast wave faded and dispersed, leaving nothing of the first warship other than a spreading, cooling cloud of dust, plasma and semi-molten debris.

* * *

**Bridge**

**TFS Concordia**

Captain Paul Mitchell studied the spinning debris plume that was all that remained of the destroyed alien warship. He hadn't really wanted to do that, blast who knew how many hundreds of sentient beings straight to hell, but the aliens really hadn't given him much choice. Though the fact that the alien shields had yielded so easily was somewhat surprising as he would have expected shields that were only four generations or so older than their own to hold up longer to the fury of there weapons.

"What's the status of the remaining alien warship," he asked a moment before a fresh series of shivers ran through the deck as the remaining alien opened up with pulse lasers again.

"There shields are down to seventy percent, sir," McKay answered. "There is also some minor thermal damage to there outer hull on there starboard side." The sensors abruptly bleeped a warning. "Sir I'm picking up a neutrino surge on the alien ship."

Paul frowned. "What kind of neutrino surge," he asked a moment before the _Concordia_ rocked violently as a brilliant spear of energy from the alien ship slammed into their shields.

"Shields down to seventy-nine percent," Daniels reported as gravitational stability returned, but only for a moment as another violent blow shook the ship as two balls of superheated plasma struck the shields. "Shields at seventy percent minor thermal increase on outer armour layer," he added.

Paul frowned in annoyance. "Alright enough of this nonsense," he growled softly. "Lock our portside particle slicer cannon on the alien ship, destroy them."

"That might not be necessary, sir," McKay interrupted. "Sensors show two ships decloaking off the alien's port quarter reading transponder codes, there the _Juno_ and the _Akagi_."

Paul nodded he could see it himself on the screen. The two Windraker-class destroyers shimmered into view, disengaging the cloaks they'd used to hide there approach from the direction of Rivendell and the rest of the task force. Both ships opened fire on the aliens immediately, ion bolts erupting from their cannons while drones birthed from their lateral launchers and shot towards the alien warship at the incredible speeds the highly advanced Alteran-tech based weapons were capable of travelling at.

The alien ships shields visibly flared with a brilliant silvery sheen as the heavy volley of energy blasts crashed into them, tearing at the protective barrier with bolts of ionic devastation. The shield flared brighter as it fought to withstand the lower energy but still extremely powerful blasts fired by the destroyers. Seeing the alien shields struggling Paul wasn't particularly surprised when the drones from the destroyers reached the ship, and passed through its weakening shields as if they didn't exist to tear into the ship.

Paul winced slightly as he saw explosions erupt on the alien vessel as the drones drilled through it. He knew the kind of chaos the drones would be causing onboard and he couldn't help but feel a twinge of sympathy for the alien crew as their ship was literally being ripped apart around them. Fifteen drones from the originally twenty strong salvo emerged from the alien warships starboard hull and arced around to strike it again, crumpling the ships hull and superstructure as if were tin foil and not a strong metallic alloy. More explosions erupted on the vessel as whole sections on multiple decks underwent total structural collapse, ten drones shot out of the underside of the ship, which was already visibly starting to break up. As before the drones arced around and struck the alien ship again, this time all of them exploding as they punched deep into the vessel – the detonations merged with the detonation of the ships ruptured reactor fuel tanks. The alien vessel erupted in a titanic fireball that swiftly faded away leaving nothing but a plume of torn semi-molten fragments as an epitaph.

"Stand down from battle stations," Paul ordered as the flash of the explosion faded away. "Lower shields."

"Aye sir," Lieutenant Commander Beach replied from tactical a moment before the communications console trilled for attention.

"Sir we're being hailed by the _Achilles_," the officer on duty reported. "Admiral Robyns wants to speak with you."

"Very well put him through," Paul replied guessing what his superior wanted even as a holographic screen blinked into existence in front of him showing the face and upper torso of the only Tau'ri admiral in this universe.

"Captain Mitchell," Admiral Robyns began. "We've monitored the battle with the unknown alien vessels, I'm glad the _Juno_ and _Akagi_ arrived in time to assist you. What's your status?"

"No damage sir," Paul replied. "The aliens dropped our shields down to seventy percent but other than that we haven't sustained any damage to speak off. Sir I should point out that we tried repeatedly to hail the aliens but they either didn't hear us or ignored us."

"I see," Robyns repeated with a concerned frown appearing on his face. "That's concerning and why have to consider that those aliens got off a signal to wherever there homeworld is through a mechanism we don't understand. More ships could be coming, meaning we cannot stay here for much longer."

"No sir," Paul agreed knowing that the risk would be great. While the aliens were not much of a match for them in small groups in number's the threat would be magnified to a level that would be far too dangerous for Rivendell. To mitigate the risk they would have to move to a new location soon. First, though they needed information on which stars in this area were safe and which weren't – the last thing they wanted or needed was to come out of hyperspace and come face to face with a hostile alien fleet. Fortunately, there was a readily available source of such information, coasting along at low sublight speed off the _Concordia's_ starboard flank.

"Sir might I suggest we reinforce the team on the derelict ship," he suggested. "Send over some technicians as well as more marines, before trying to access their database and download some star charts from their navigational computer – if we can access it."

"That ship has been cruising the stars at sublight speeds for at least twenty years," Robyns, reminded him. "It's likely that any information in her navigational computer would be somewhat outdated."

"I know," Paul replied, "but it would give us something of a starting point and given the hull damaged we've observed to the derelict it's possible that they may know who the aliens who attacked us are."

The admiral frowned thoughtfully. "They may indeed," he agreed after a moment. "There's also the matter of the people in stasis on board we can't in good conscience abandon them to die when the derelict enters the asteroid field.

"Very well then, captain. Dispatch additional marine and technician units to the derelict ship," he continued. "Co-ordinate with the captains of the _Juno_ and _Akagi_, have them do the same."

"Aye, sir," Paul answered.

"Also do a full scan of the derelicts structure and hull status. I want to know if it will stand up to both the stresses of a tractor beam and a hyperspace tow."

"I understand sir."

"Excellent, _Achilles_ out," Robyns replied a moment before the holographic screen blinked out of existence with all the fuss of a bursting soap bubble. Paul sighed softly before looking around at the rest of the bridge crew.

"You heard him people," he said. "Commander Parker liaise with the captains of the _Juno_ and _Akagi_ about transporting additional marine and technical support units over to the derelict. Communications update Lieutenant Blackwell on what has happened. Lieutenant McKay begin in depth scans of the derelict along with computer simulations to determine if it could potentially withstand both the graviton stresses of a tractor beam and the subspace stresses of hyperspace travel."

"Aye sir," came the replies from the respective stations.

As his crew scrambled into motion to carry out there orders Paul turned his attention back to the view screen. With both alien warships now destroyed, the visual had returned to a view of the blocky, angular derelict ship. He hoped that that ship held the information they needed, information that they would need to ensure Rivendell's safety. After all, while they'd defeated the aggressive aliens easily this time – there was no guarantee they would be able to do it again – especially if the aliens came with a full-blown battle fleet.

_If there is no information salvageable in that ships databanks then maybe the crew will be able to help if and when we take them out of stasis,_ he thought, _we would be saving there lives so its only fair they pay us back with information._ Mentally he sighed and told himself that despite saving them the Human crew of the derelict might not exactly be cooperative on the information front, not immediately anyway. _We'll convince them that we mean them no harm and that they can trust us,_ he thought, _we have to. Or this battle will have been for nothing, we could have gotten involved in someone else's war for no reason_.

After a moment, more thought he sighed softly to himself again and leaned back in his command chair. He had no idea what the future held for the task force and Rivendell, but he did know one thing.

It had just gotten a whole lot more interesting.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

**Derelict Ship **

**That Same Time**

Lieutenant Nathan Blackwell cautiously swept his Corsair heavy assault rifle from side to side, as he led his current squad of marines into the room where they'd detected the first lot of stasis signatures. Though this warship seemed to be derelict and almost completely dead, he wasn't about to take any chances, especially given the alien attack on the _Concordia_ that had occurred mere minutes before. While the two unknown but highly aggressive alien warships had been defeated, either burned from the stars by ion cannon fire or torn apart by drone weapons, Nathan was too experienced to believe that the danger to himself and his men had ended with the destruction of the warships.

Taking there lead from him the rest of the squad spread out and began searching the room for any sign of hostiles. All of them knew that it was possible that the aliens had transported over to the derelict, it would be easy enough given that the derelict had no shields or anything capable of blocking or scattering a transporter beam – at least not that they knew of. They also knew it was unlikely that the _Concordia_ would have spotted a transport during the heat of battle, transporter energy flares were very brief after all and could easily get lost in all the energy backwash 'noise' of weapons fire and Cherenkov radiation flares from shield impacts that occurred during a space battle.

"Clear lieutenant," Sergeant Rostov reported over the squad command frequency.

"Good," Nathan replied. "Michaels, Stevens guard the door."

"Yes sir," both marines acknowledged and moved to cover the door. While his two marines moved to the door, Nathan slipped his Corsair back to its storage location between his shoulder blades – held there by a molecular bonding surface – and curiously looked at the room around him.

It was a large rectangular space – according to his HUD the room was twenty-three metres long and ten wide. Somewhat unsurprisingly, there were still some lights on; they were the same pale blue lights that had illuminated the stairwell between the levels of this gigantic ship. Against the wall at forty-degree angles were rectangular coffin-like pods their transparent front surfaces frosted over. Small control panels on the side of each pod glowed softly and each had locker beside it – a locker that looked no different to what you'd find in any high school or gym in the galaxy.

A large pedestal like console stood in the centre of the room, like the smaller control panels some lights on it still glowed softly indicating that it was still drawing power from the ships energy grid. Cautiously he moved over to the console and scanned it; it didn't look at all like the consoles he was used it. Instead of being covered with crystalline controls, knobs and slides like on their own ships the console surface was smooth and gave the impression of being made of somekind of metallic plastic. Lights glowed faintly at a few places beneath the quasi-metallic surface, the lettering unsurprisingly in English characters and Nathan gave it a cursory scan, noting that it seemed to be a central control point for the chambers in this room.

"Rostov, come here" he called to his team's sergeant – who was also the closest thing he had to an electronics specialist. "Take a look at this console; see if you can make any sense of it."

"Yes sir," Rostov answered and Nathan made way for the younger man to get to work on the console.

While Rostov got to work, Nathan curiously made his way to the closest pod and mentally ordered his suits computer to scan it and its contents while he visually checked it out. The pod was somewhat bulky – more so than the cocoon-like stasis pods they themselves used on occasion – but seemed functional and the design somehow fitted in with the blocky, angular design of this vessel. Cautiously he reached out and wiped some of the condensation off the transparent front plate, to find that the pod contained a well built but otherwise unremarkable Caucasian male who looked to be in his mid to late twenties or very early thirties.

From what little he could see through the heavily frosted surface the young man was completely naked and was very pale, which fitted in with the sensor information his suit computer spat back at him. According to the scan the man was cryogenically frozen – though there didn't appear to be any ice crystals in his cells or blood stream. Nathan couldn't help but wonder if the gases that filled the interior of the pod coupled with the very low level microwave emissions that his sensors picked up were somehow preventing that from happening. _If that's the case then it would be a clever solution to the problems cryogenically freezing someone has,_ he thought impressed by the technology. In some ways cryogenic freezing was superior to the technology they themselves used in the rare instances where stasis was required. But in others it was far more primitive and clunky, requiring extensive apparatus and needing someone to figure out away of preventing the freezing and defrosting processes from killing the subject. Something that this ships builders had obviously been able to do.

Curiosity growing he examined the rest of the data on the pod his suit sensors had been able to gather. The pod was apparently still drawing some power from the ship though it appeared that the lion share of power the pod needed was now coming from built in micro-fusion batteries. The pod was also completely airtight and seemed designed to survive in the absolute zero vacuum environment of space for quite sometime. _Makes sense,_ he thought, _some of our own stasis pods can act as life pods in an emergency, there is no reason why these can't either._ _The fact that these pods have their own internal power source will make getting them off the ship a whole lot easier, we can just transport the pods and their contents to one of our warships or __Rivendell__ and revive them in more controlled conditions there._

"Lieutenant I've managed to get the console active," Rostov called out bringing Nathan's attention back to him and making the Special Forces trained and augmented marine move over to rejoin him.

"Can you make anything out?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," Rostov answered. "This console appears to primarily link to the systems in this stasis bay. It does have a link to the rest of the ships computer network – however the network appears to be down probably from lack of power. I can only access basic information from local memory."

"That's alright what can you tell me?"

"For one I can tell you this ships name, we're aboard the UNSC _Spirit of Fire_, Captain James Gregory Cutter commanding," Rostov replied. "If what I'm reading here is right this ship isn't a frontline combat vessel but rather some sort of fleet support ship."

Nathan raised an eyebrow behind the silvered faceplate of his helmet, surprised by that revelation. This ship was almost as big as a Damocles-class battlecruiser and it was a _support_ ship? Albeit one that was well armed even if its weapons systems and defences were somewhat on the primitive side.

After a few moments more thought he supposed that he shouldn't be surprised. From what they'd seen on this ship so far the Humans who'd built it were a lot less technologically advanced than they were, they certainly seemed to lack technologies that Nathan like all Tau'ri took for granted. Technologies like nano-forges, molecular fabricators and food synthesisers that meant there ships didn't have to carry massive quantities of supplies. Hence why their own supply ships tended to be small and only carried materials and objects that were difficult – if not impossible – to easily construct or synthesise by their normal means.

The Humans who'd built this ship however seemed to lack that kind of technology, meaning they had to carry far more massive amounts of supplies. Viewed in that light it explained the immense size of this vessel they would need massive bays to store things in. And if the Humans of this reality were at war with someone it would explain why this ship was armed. Nathan suspected that the Humans of this reality were indeed at war and he had suspected that the aliens who'd attacked the _Concordia _were humanities enemy. It would certainly explain why the aliens opened fire on the _Concordia_ without warning or provocation.

"Any more information in the local memory," he asked after a few moments of silence.

"Only a complete list of the individuals that are occupying the cryo-tubes in this bay," Rostov answered. "Most appear to be navy personnel – mostly pilots and maintenance personal, presumably from the hanger bay we initially beamed into. However a few are something called ODST – I have no idea what they are but from the rank structures I suspect they might be marines."

"Can you access the cryo pod control systems," Nathan asked knowing they'd find out more about these ODST – though what ODST stood for he had no idea – marines later. First they needed to get these people off this ship before it entered the asteroid field.

"I believe so," Rostov answered his hands dancing over the console, fingers still nimble even though they were encased in armour. After a few moments he managed to get access to the cryo control systems. "I'm in sir. Given that this ships life support systems are offline the system won't let me start the revival sequence on the pods. However I can disengage the pods from the ship which will – if I'm reading this right – automatically activate their emergency radio beacons."

"That will do, stand by to execute the command to disengage from the ship. I just need to inform the _Concordia_ first so they can lock onto the beacons and beam the pods aboard."

"Yes sir standing by."

As the sergeant spoke Nathan gave his suit computer a mental command, instructing it to open an encrypted subspace comm. link with the _Concordia_. After half a seconds delay a bleep sounded in his ears as the connection was firmly established.

"Investigation team one to _Concordia_ do you read," Nathan said into the suit pickup.

"We read you lieutenant," Captain Mitchell's voice responded immediately. "What's your status?"

"We've entered one of the stasis bays sir," Nathan reported. "There are a large number of Humans here in some sort of cryogenic suspension. We've been able to tap into some of the ships systems and have determined that the pods are capable of being separated from the ship without negative effects to those within. My guess is it's an emergency system similar to what some of our stasis pods have as the moment the pods disengage from the ships systems emergency radio beacons are supposed to activate."

"Interesting," Mitchell commented and Nathan could almost see the thoughtful look that had no doubt appeared on his commanding officers face. "Have you been able to learn anything else about the derelict lieutenant?"

"A little sir," Nathan replied before explaining what Rostov had been able to pull off the local RAM.

"Very interesting and if the Humans of this reality and those aliens who attacked us are at war with each other it would explain a lot," Mitchell said sounding thoughtful. "But we need more information than what you've been able to gather so far. Additional teams will be transporting over to the derelict shortly to do additional surveys in the meantime I have a new assignment for you."

Behind his helmet visor Nathan's eyebrows rose. "Sir," he queried.

"First off I want you to disengage those cryo-pods from the rest of the derelict so we can transport them aboard. Our scans have located what appears to be the bridge, once the pods are safely transported off I want you to take your team up there and see if you access the navigational computer."

"Getting a copy of their star charts would certainly save us a lot of time," Nathan commented knowing that the fleet and Rivendell itself had been heavily scanning space around them since their arrival in this reality. Conversations he'd had in the gym and mess hall with Lieutenant McKay had let him know that they were doing it to build an accurate map of the space around them as some of the stellar objects and phenomenon they could detect were either in slightly the wrong place or missing altogether. According to McKay the differences were giving the fleets navigators a fair few headaches to say the least.

"That is one of the reasons why we want them," Mitchell confirmed. "The other is the aliens who attacked us could send more ships to find out why their ships haven't returned. As powerful as our ships are I doubt we'd be able to fend off an entire fleet. Hopefully the star charts will tell us where the alien territory is so we can avoid it."

"Understood sir we'll get right on it."

"Good luck lieutenant," Mitchell answered before terminating the comm. link from his end. Calmly Nathan turned to look back at Rostov – even as his helmet bleeped and new destination coordinates appeared on his HUD.

"Disengage the pods from the ship," he instructed through his suit speaker before switching to the squad command frequency. "Alright everyone listen up. As soon as were done disengaging these cryo pods from the ship we'll be heading for this ships bridge. Our objective is to access the navigational computer and upload the star charts to the _Concordia_ for analysis by Arwen and the fleet's navigational specialists. Everyone clear on what we're doing?"

"Clear sir," the whole team responded in almost perfect unison.

"Good," Nathan replied half a second before Rostov gave a small cry of triumph as he finally activated the system to disengage the cryo pods from the ship.

For a moment after confirming the command nothing happened then there came a humming of machinery coming to life. A long series of metallic clanks and bangs sounded throughout the cryo bay – almost deafening the marines despite the audio filtration abilities of their helmets – as the clamps holding the pods in their docked positions disengaged. Almost in unison all the cryo pods moved forwards slightly out of their original positions, lights on the pods began blinking and the mini computers in the marines armour reported the activation of emergency radio beacons. For a few seconds the pods remained that way before the familiar brilliant silver-white light of Tau'ri and Asgard style transporter beams enveloped them and they vanished instantly whisked away to the _Concordia_.

As the energy and light flare of the transporter beams faded Nathan once again spoke into his squad command frequency. "Move out," he ordered taking his Corsair rifle from his back once again and heading for the entrance to the now empty bay. The rest of his squad fell in around him, their own rifles out and ready as they resumed moving through the ship heading for the bridge and the navigational computer.

* * *

**Bridge**

**TFS Concordia**

"Transport successful sir," Commander Jason Parker reported from the first officer's station. "We have the first group of cryo pods onboard. We've stored them in cargo bay six; engineering and medical teams are on their way there now just in case there are any problems."

"Excellent," Paul Mitchell replied from the command chair. "Lieutenant McKay any progress on the analysis of the derel… of the _Spirit of Fire's_ hull?"

"Yes sir," McKay answered. "Sir I have to revise our information on the composition of the _Spirit of Fire's_ hull. Its not a pure titanium alloy instead it appears to be a advanced metal matrix composite alloy composed of very pure titanium fifty woven through with sheets of carbon sixty nanotubes. The result is a material that while still woefully inferior to our own hull materials is remarkably light while being incredibly resilient. I'd rate it as being similar in tensile strength to the trinium/titanium alloys that the old SGC used on the old _Prometheus_ and _Daedalus_ class starships."

"Interesting," Paul commented. "What about its current integrity? Will it withstand the graviton forces of a tractor beam and the potential inertial forces of a hyperspace tow?"

"Based on the renewed analysis the hull should be fully capable of withstanding the graviton effects of a tractor beam. However its to badly compromised to withstand the subspace and inertial stress of even a short burst of hyperspace travel. The only way it would be able to is if we were to somehow extend Rivendell's shields around it allowing the inertial dampening properties to protect it."

"We'll leave that to Arwen, the scientists and techs on Rivendell to work out," Paul replied with a smile. "Communications advise the _Achilles_ that we've recovered some cryo pods from the derelict and determined that it is capable of withstanding the graviton stresses of a tractor beam, request permission to tractor the derelict back to the rest of the fleet."

"Aye sir," the communications officer replied before carrying out Paul's instructions. After a few moments of silence the response came in. "Sir Admiral Robyns has given permission for us to tow the derelict back to the rest of the fleet."

"Excellent, advise Lieutenant Blackwell of what we're going to do and instruct him to continue with the mission to acquire the navigational data," Paul ordered. "Helm bring us about and move us into position to tow the _Spirit of Fire_ back to the rest of the fleet."

"Aye sir," came the response from the respective stations a moment before the first officer's console chimed for attention.

"Captain we've got a bit of a problem with two of the cryo stasis pods," Parker reported as information flowed into his mind through the consoles neural interface.

"What's wrong?" Paul asked.

"Engineering reports that two of the pods are loosing power rapidly, the power failure has apparently tripped some built in emergency rival protocols. Both affected pods are warming up rapidly and the life signs of the occupants are increasing. Medical personnel want your permission to internally transport the affected pods to sickbay so they can monitor the revival process more easily and intervene if needs be."

"Permission granted," Paul responded instantly, he had not destroyed two alien vessels to protect the people in stasis on the _Spirit_ _of Fire_ for two of them to potentially die now. "Also increase the monitoring of the other pods, if two are failing then the others might not be far off failure."

"Aye sir," Parker responded. "Medical personnel have acknowledged and are transporting the affected pods to sickbay now."

"Very well," Paul replied before standing up from his chair and felt the familiar momentary sense of disorientation as the command datastream normally present at the back of his mind whenever he was in the chair disappeared. "You have the conn commander. I'll be down in sickbay if I'm needed."

"Aye sir," Parker replied getting up from his own station and moving towards the command chair as Paul turned and left the bridge, heading to sickbay and there unexpectedly awakening guests.

"Commander we're in position to engage the tractor beam," the helmsman reported.

"Very good engage the beam," Parker instructed. "Then set course back to Rivendell and the rest of the fleet best safe towing speed."

"Aye sir."

* * *

Silently a beam of tightly focused gravitic force reached out from the aft underside of the _Concordia_ and streaked through space towards the near derelict _Spirit of Fire_. So great was the strength of the localised gravity manipulation that the beam was faintly visible to the pilots of the Hornet fighters forming the CAP around the ships as a faint rippling in space as though they were looking at a patch of space through a plane of running water.

As the beam made contact with the _Spirit_ it expanded into a faintly glimmering energy field that completely enveloped the whole of the two and a half kilometre long vessel while hugging the contours of the hull like a second skin. Instantly the field of manipulated gravitic forces cancelled out all the inertia built up by the near derelict ship in its long sublight cruise between the stars bringing it to near halt in space. But only for a moment as the _Concordia's_ powerful inertial sublight engines powered up to barely two thirds of their normal power and began moving the vessel forward.

Under the influence of the tractor field the _Spirit of Fire_ also began moving, matching the movements of the much smaller ship perfectly. Angling her course slightly the _Concordia_ gently nudged the deadweight of the _Spirit_ onto a new trajectory that would both prevent her ploughing at speed into the first of the systems two major asteroid belts and take both ships back to Rivendell and the safety of the rest of the task force.

* * *

**Sickbay**

**TFS Concordia**

It didn't take long for Captain Paul Mitchell to reach the _Concordia's_ main sickbay from the bridge. Like the bridge and most of the ships vital areas the sickbay was located within the vessels citadel deep within the core of the Agamemnon-class heavy cruiser. Inside the citadel vital facilities such as the ships bridge, dual naquada enhanced nuclear fusion reactors, ZPM room and gunnery control rooms were protected from all but mortal blows by thick layers of additional armour and sophisticated force fields.

Stepping into the sickbay Paul was not for the first time surprised by how different from the style of the rest of the ship it was. While bulkheads and vaulted ceilings in the rest of the ship were made of light copper or tan coloured metal with slate black decks made of a marble-like metal the walls in sickbay were made out of a cream coloured metal. The decks were covered with soft carpeting – similar to that found in officer's quarters – and the lighting crystals gave off a slightly softer lighting than elsewhere on the ship. The effect combined with the softer furnishings and smooth almost organic curves of the consoles and beds gave the sickbay a restful and recuperative atmosphere.

"Captain," one of the nurses – a young man whose accent indicated he was from the Tau'ri colony on Epsilon Eridani III – asked approaching from the direction of the isolation rooms. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Yes I'm looking for the people from the failing cryo pods," Paul answered.

The nurse smiled softly at that, the medical staff had been expecting their commanding officer to show up in sickbay soon after transporting the two cryo pods from the cargo bay to sickbay. It was a well known fact to all the hands on the _Concordia_ that Paul Mitchell was a man who cared deeply for everyone on his ship be they members of his crew or guests. It was a personality quirk that made the crew very loyal to him as even the lowliest crew person knew the 'old man' cared so much about there welfare.

"There in isolation rooms two and three," the younger man answered as he started leading his commander towards the corridor that led to the viewing gallery isolation rooms. "We've been able to extract them from the cryo pods but there not in a very good way. Both are showing signs of considerable nutrient deficiency and are unconscious, the doctor guesses that they were in cryo stasis far longer than anyone ever intended someone to be in such a state. The cryo gasses did seem to provide some nutrients to keep them alive but it wasn't enough – not long term anyway."

"Why would they need nutrients in cryo-stasis," Paul asked in confusion. "I thought they were frozen."

"They were but not completely," the nurse answered. "The gasses of the cryo pod technology apparently lowers core body temperature almost to freezing – stopping almost all metabolic processes while inhibiting the formation of ice crystals that could rupture cell membranes. However some metabolic processes continue even in cryo – the heart keeps beating but incredibly, incredibly slowly like once or twice a minute, they continue to breath and blood keeps flowing albeit very slowly. Thus they still need some form of nutrients to keep them alive."

"I see," Paul replied. "Are they going to be alright?"

"They'll be fine," the nurse answered reassuringly. "We've already dealt with the nutrient deficiency, there just going to be unconscious for awhile as the residue of the cryo gasses leave their systems. They'll probably be somewhat groggy for awhile after wards as well, we can't say for sure as this type of stasis technology is largely unknown to us."

Paul nodded as they arrived on the gallery that looked down on the isolation rooms. The two active rooms were easy to spot as their overhead windows were illuminated allowing observers to look down in with ease. Standing on the balcony waiting for Paul to arrive was Doctor Roland Stewart the _Concordia's_ chief medical officer.

"Captain," the doctor said in greeting. "I assume you're here for our two guests."

"I am doc," Paul confirmed. "The nurse told me that they're going to sleep for awhile but that they should be okay."

Roland nodded. "They should be," he said. "Since we don't know much about the cryo sleep technology I can't be entirely that they'll be okay until they wake up and I can perform full neurological tests. All our scans show they should be fine though. What I am concerned about is the others in the cryo pods both on this ship and anymore on the derelict. What we've observed with these two individuals is likely to be the case with all of them – and some could potentially be far worse off. We really need to get them out of those cryo pods.

"Unfortunately we don't have the manpower or the space on this ship to care for so many if we bring them all out of cryo stasis," he continued. "Given how many pods are likely still on the derelict I doubt even the sickbays of the _Achilles_ would be enough to care for them all."

"Indeed we don't," Paul agreed. "Fortunately we're towing the derelict ship – our investigation teams found that she's called the _Spirit of Fire_ – back to Rivendell."

"Then we shouldn't have any problems bringing everyone out of cryo stasis, caring and eventually housing them," Roland said the relief palpable in his voice. "Rivendell has more than enough space in its infirmaries to care for a few thousand people and housing them should be no problem."

Paul nodded. "No it shouldn't be a problem," he agreed before looking down into the isolation rooms at the two sleeping individuals. Both were male and athletic and one had what looked like a tattoo on his left shoulder though from his position Paul couldn't see what it was. "What's that tattoo on the one mans shoulder?" he asked.

"It's a large triangle with a flaming comet or meteor inside it and the words 'we go feet first' written below it," Roland answered. "I have no idea what it means. We'll have to ask him when he wakes up."

"Can you tell me anything more about them?" Paul asked.

"Not that much I have noticed however that both have a gene sequence very similar to the ATA gene sequence that all our people have," Roland answered.

"Will they be able to use our neural interface technology to access the ships datastream then," Paul asked in concern. He knew that if there guests were able to access the _Concordia's_ systems mentally it would present a security concern to the whole fleet even if all critical systems were protected by adaptive firewalls and sophisticated encryption codes. Even Rivendell would be affected by the security concern though they also had firewalls and codes and had the added benefit of a watchful A.I matrix in the form of Arwen.

"No," Roland assured him. "While it's similar to the ATA gene sequence its not the same, it's certainly not close enough for them to access our systems without gene therapy or implant assistance. I've also noticed that the gene sequence is not natural to the Human genome."

"What do you mean?"

"Its coded wrong," Roland explained. "The nature of the coding is almost identical to the gene sequences that give Tok'ra – and the Goa'uld before them – their genetic memory and there is some information encoded in it that would probably manifest as a subconscious understanding of some topics or technologies. This kind of genetic information coding is not natural to Humans, someone deliberately engineered it and implanted it into their DNA and from the level of integration it was done a very long time ago."

"How long ago do you think it was done?"

"I can't be sure without a deeper analysis but anywhere from fifty to a hundred thousand years ago, before the evolution of modern homo sapiens. It's possible that the gene sequence led to the evolution of homo sapiens in this reality just like how the Ancients ensured that Humans would evolve in the desired direction on words they seeded across our universe. We both know what resulted the one time they weren't careful."

"Yeah instead of Humans they got the Wraith," Paul replied turning his attention back to the doctor. "Analyse any DNA samples you've got from them thoroughly doctor and let me know the results. Also forward them to the scientists on Rivendell and Admiral Robyns," he instructed curious as to what else about the Humans of this reality would be revealed by the DNA analysis.

"I'll get right on it sir."

"Good. I should get back to the bridge, keep me appraised of anything that happens with our guests."

"Of course captain."

* * *

**UNSC Spirit of Fire**

**A Few Minutes Later**

With a deep rumble of thunder and a flash of plasma flame and smoke the reinforced bulkhead door that was sealing the bridge of the _Spirit of Fire_ off from the rest of the ship shattered, the incredible force of the C-60 charges tearing the metal apart like tinfoil. The shockwave from the detonation of the explosives rippled through the deck making the vessel shudder slightly before the wave died away.

Keeping his rifle at the ready Lieutenant Nathan Blackwell led his team through the thinning cloud of smoke onto the bridge. As when he'd first entered the cryo pod bay he carefully scanned the bridge looking for any potential threats and found none. Relaxing slightly he returned the Corsair to its place on his back and looked curiously around the bridge.

He was immediately struck by how dark and cramped the bridge was. A large table like console stood immediately in front of him taking up almost the whole of the rear of the bridge, two small monitors hung down from the ceiling on the right and left sides of the table – presumably to display supplementary information in addition to whatever information the table console displayed. Directly in front of the table separated by a few footsteps was what was presumably the ships command chair – itself with two small monitors hanging down from the ceiling where the captain or whoever was in the chair could easily see them – and curving around towards the front of the bridge on either side of the central walkway were a series of consoles all with wide angle windows out on space above them. Right at the front of the bridge was the most striking feature of the room – a complete floor to ceiling view port that looked out on the star speckled darkness of space.

"Okay people lets see if we can find the navigation controls," he said speaking into the squad command frequency. Rather than answer verbally the rest of his team spread out and began checking each console one by one to find out exactly what it was for. Nathan for his part found his attention drawn to the view port and he walked up before looking out on space. The view out was spectacular and right now everything seemed to have a slight sheen to it, an effect of the tractor field surrounding the ship as the _Concordia_ towed it slowly across the system. _Impressive view,_ he thought, _though having the bridge exposed like this is dangerous. A smart enemy would easily be able to take it out with a single well placed shot leaving the ship directionless and easy prey for boarding or destruction._

"Lieutenant I've located the navigation and helm controls," Sergeant Rostov called out drawing Nathan's attention and making him look over at the other man.

"Unfortunately there doesn't appear to be any power to the bridge systems," Rostov continued sounding irritated. "My suit computer has located a terminal where we can plug a power source in, I would like your permission to contact the _Concordia_ and get a power source and some tools sent over."

"Permission granted," Nathan replied before turning his attention back to the view outside. He could see why people found the idea of being able to look out at open space from the bridge romantic, it was certainly a spectacular view. Unfortunately for a military ship like this one it was dangerous as it made the command crew to vulnerable – his own people had abandoned exposed bridge modules on their warships because of that vulnerability. They'd learned that lesson the hard way during the last major war three centuries earlier against a reptilian race called the Theliax in the Andromeda Galaxy – a race that had attacked them without warning or provocation shortly after the establishment of the first Andromeda settlements and refused all attempts to end the confrontation by peaceful means. A number of times during the first years of that war the Theliax had targeted the bridge of Tau'ri vessels after breaking down their shields, crippling the chain of command and allowing them to board and capture the vessel without to much resistance and without the risk of the ships commanding officer initiating the self destruct countdown.

A momentary flash of silver white light illuminated the bridge from behind him accompanied by a musical tone let him know that the equipment Sergeant Rostov had requested had just arrived. Nathan paid it no mind as he found his thoughts drifting to thoughts of his ancestor's battle with the Theliax. The war between them had been very long and bloody as Theliax technology had been as good as their own, it had taken decades to defeat the Theliax – to drive them all the way back to their homeworld and force their surrender. Even today there was bad blood between Tau'ri and Theliax – though they'd never again faced each other in open war they weren't exactly friends.

A sudden audible thrum of power through the bridge caught Nathan's attention and brought his thoughts right back to the present. Turning in place he saw multiple consoles around the bridge starting to light up as power flowed through their circuits for the first time in who knew how many years.

"Well done, sergeant," he said as he saw Rostov stand up from where he'd been crouching near an open panel at the back of the bridge. A panel into which he and another of the team had patched in the small briefcase sized form of a portable subspace capacitor.

"Thank you sir," Rostov replied as he moved back to a console at the front of the bridge and sat down. "I'm not sure how long the interface with the capacitor is going to last though, this ships power systems are old, my guess is this ship has seen a lot of service even before it began its current long voyage between the stars."

"Its still an impressive achievement sergeant," Nathan answered moving over to join the other marine as Rostov sat down, "jury rigging an interface between one of our power sources and such antiquated systems."

"Thanks sir," Rostov replied and even though he couldn't see his face due to the silvered helmet visor Nathan could tell Rostov was blushing a little at the praise. Nathan could understand why as he wasn't one to give out praise unless it was really warranted.

"Okay next up parting the red sea," Rostov quipped earning a chuckle from all the marines on the bridge as he started working the controls to access the navigational databanks.

To his total lack of surprise the navigational computer was protected by a series of firewalls and encryption codes that he had to work hard to bypass or break through with aid from his armours computer. It took several minutes but eventually he broke through the last firewall and the main directory appeared on the screens before him.

"I'm in," he called out. "I'm setting up a radio link now with the _Concordia_ to transfer the navigational data. Link established beginning file transfer."

Nathan nodded and was about to reply when a new voice spoke from somewhere behind them. "I'm afraid I cannot allow you to do that," a British accented female voice said a moment before all power to the navigational computer was cut making the console go dark.

Spinning around Nathan found himself face to face with a blue toned hologram of a woman standing about two feet tall on top of the table console at the back of the bridge. She was a beautiful woman with delicate features and long hair that from its shade of blue would be black if the hologram had been full colour. She wore a shirt and pants that would have been white and brown respectively and boots, strange bits of coding moved up and down her body as she studied them with great interest.

"Who are you," Nathan asked through his suit speakers.

"I could ask you that same question," the woman replied inclining her head slightly to the side in a quizzical fashion. "But I will satisfy your curiosity. My name is Serina I am the Smart A.I construct assigned to the _Spirit of Fire_.

"Now you answer me," Serina continued looking at the six armoured figures on the bridge in confusion and suspicion. They were bipedal and what limited internal sensors she still operational revealed that they were most likely Human but their equipment and technology – especially the advanced armour they seemed to be wearing – did not match anything in her databanks.

"Who are you and why are you aboard this ship?"


End file.
